Halo: Fire of Dawn
by Cybernyde
Summary: Raptor 6 was trained in the Spartan-II program. In 2557, he had been recruited to join the Spartan-IV program of the UNSC to look further for Forerunner installations. Now he has come upon Fire of Dawn, and leads fireteam Eagle to search the installation. But soon his team is separated, and as he begins to look for them, he discovers a secret that has been long kept from man.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

* * *

**T**hey entered the chamber quickly and turned to face each other.

"You now know how important it is?" He asked impatiently.

"The artifact," answered the other figure beside him.

"You must not let anyone with the means get to it, or it could end of life as we know it." He turned to the doorway "Let the Promethean Knights keep guard of the entrance of this installation. You will be preserved from the Halo effect for this reason only. We've made sure the Flood nor the ring's power may come through. Get in the cryptum, for I must leave soon to collect the remaining specimens." He marched out of the chamber, his footsteps making rapid sounds as he paced to the exit. He walked to his ship waiting for him outside.

"Is it done commander?" asked the pilot turning behind the seat to look at him, who had just gotten aboard.

"Yes, I told him his duty. We need to go before the Flood soon follows us. If they discover this place, it could mean the worst." He sat on the seat next to the pilot's as they began to ascend.

The one in the chamber walked toward the cryptum they had assigned him to.

"Ancilla, set the installations sensors to awaken me when there is an interference or unknown activity in the system."

"Modifying into installation's sensor system...re-coding systems...done." replied the ancilla, answering in a series of words.

"Good, set it to lockdown. Let no one in." He walked into a weapons holder room and put his weapons into hard-light capsules. His armor floated from his body into a container made from hard-light shields. Naked, he walked back to the cryptum. The ancilla activated it, and she shut herself down. Soon, the installation went into lockdown, and the figure was in cryo-sleep.

* * *

Days later, a vast powerful array was fired from all parts of the galaxy. It was done, and he was the only one to witness it alive. The Halo rings had been fired.


	2. One

**One**

* * *

**UNSC VESSEL GLORY RIVAL**

**FEBRUARY 3, 2560**

**2200 Hours**

"**Y**ou wanted to see me sir?" I came in the bridge.

"Hello 6. Sleep well?" Dale, captain of the vessel Glory Rival had called me to come see him.

"If it's a good night's sleep you're looking for, you'll be disappointed." I looked at him, barely keeping myself awake.

"Yeah well, you've had tougher times." He looked outside the windshield of the bridge, which is 10 meters wide.

"I'm not really fond of my past. Why did you call me?" I asked looking at his back.

"Our researchers have detected an unknown signal, coming from about somewhere south. We're not really sure what it is, but according to it's signals it's far more superior than the Covenant's or ours. There's a chance it may be what we are looking for," he turned around and faced me, having to look up due to my surgical procedures as a Spartan.

"Forerunner? I'm barely getting used to the new equipment sir. I don't think I'll do very well for a field op." I said in a loose tone.

"I know you've been having trouble with the new Spartan-IV program, but a bit more practice in the War Games and you'll be as good as the others," he answered to my statement in a smooth tone, and added "but, for this occasion you'll be leading fireteam Eagle, paired with the best. You'll also have to take a recruit for this one. His name is Riley."

"A rookie? Out of everyone here, it's me you want to take a rookie?" I snapped back at him. I wasn't too happy with the idea of having to deal with a recruit.

"You are the only one here who has had enough training over the years to help him!" He replied sharply. "He will also train in the War Games like the other Spartans, but he needs your skills as well." He paced around the console in front of us, and sighed. "We lose your kind faster than we can recruit it," he said, this time in a lighter tone, "not too many are willing to do the things you do."

"Then make them. I never chose to be a Spartan either, but it happened anyways." I said in a cold voice.

"This isn't the Spartan-II program we're handling here, we no longer use children for our troops, and you know that." He answered in an angry tone. "The op starts at 0600 hours." He went back to looking out the windshield.

"Alright, I'll do it. But he's in charge of himself out there. I'm only gonna tell him what he's supposed to do and that's it." I said as I walked out of the bridge's door.


	3. Two

**Two**

* * *

**I **came out of the armory, I held on to my helmet for the meantime. We were getting ready for the field op. I looked at the recruit, who was holding on to an MA5D assault rifle. He didn't seem to much of a burden. I called out to everyone in the team.

"Listen everyone, since this is a Forerunner installation we have a big chance of encountering far more superior things, whether it be weapons or opponents. I suggest you keep your eyes open and stay in group formation." I said as we boarded the Pelican. They all replied with a yes sir. I put my helmet on.

"Prepare for take-off," said the pilot "we're leaving in 10 seconds."

The Pelican was moved to one of the exits in the hangar. It unhooked itself from the latch and flew out of the hangar in a very fast manner. As we began to come near the installation, I looked out to see it what it was, and I was surprised.

"Captain Dale, this is Pelican 913. The installation seems to be a shield-world, possibly the same as Requiem." The pilot began to circle the installation, better known as a shield-world. The comm picked up with Captain Dale.

"A shield-world? The UNSC hasn't encountered one since the events of 2557." He too was surprised.

"Requesting permission to enter sir." The pilot was searching for a way in.

"Affirmative 913. Be careful." He said as the comm went offline.

"How are we supposed to get in without getting caught in the gravity well?" asked Cameron, who was a member of the fireteam.

"Maybe it's different," I said, looking for a way in it. Sure enough, I found one. "There, at the top." I said to the pilot, who looked to where I was pointing. It was a small hexagonal opening as big as a house.

"You sure about that?" He asked, uncertain of my decision.

"It's the only thing I've seen so far." I said.

"It's worth a shot." He flew the Pelican into the place I had directed him to.

As we got closer to the small opening, I saw it was actually a hangar meant for small ships to come through.

"We were lucky this time," said the pilot, who kept his gaze on the hangar.

"I don't believe in luck." I said, looking the opposite direction of him to see my team.

"Can't blame ya, it's something we all lack. Especially you Spartans." He said in a strict tone as he was going to land the Pelican. I looked back at him in surprise, turning my head slowly at him. No one had ever spoken to a Spartan like this.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." I turned my head back.

Suddenly we were hit by something strong. The pilot looked out the cockpit windshield.

"Prometheans! Get out before-" he was shot in his chest with a lightrifle before he could finish. I quickly ran to the cockpit and moved the pilot out of the seat and I sat grabbing the controls. I was going to try to land it somewhere else, but we were being hit with heavy fire. I looked for a place in the hangar, but there wasn't a place that didn't have Prometheans crawling everywhere. Then Riley stood next to me, and he tried to help me look for a safe zone.

"There! At the end there is a door that leads out of the hangar!" Riley set a waypoint on my helmet's HUD and I followed it.

"Quickly! We're under heavy fire!" Lace was standing at the back, holding her DMR and grabbing onto the top of her seat with her other hand.

"Come on..." I concentrated on the door leading into the installation. The Pelican began to sway from side to side. I was right about to reach the exit.

"WATCH OUT!" Riley yelled as we were hit with an incineration cannon and the Pelican came down.


	4. Three

**Three**

* * *

**I **looked to check around me, making sure there weren't any Prometheans. I had managed to get us out of the small hangar into the inside of the installation, but part of my left leg was injured and the Pelican was torn to shreds. I tried to stand up, and succeeding in the first try I began to look for the others. I didn't know if any were still in the Pelican, what was left of it. I turned on my comm to see who would pick up and had made it.

"Fireteam Eagle this is Raptor 6, do you copy?" There was no answer at first. I began to make my way to the Pelican, when I received a transmission.

"Copy that Raptor 6. This is Riley. I'm in front of the Pelican but I can't move, I'm stuck underneath it's remains." I walked to the front of the ship, seeing that his entire lower body was covered by remains of steel and aluminum.

"Did you see anyone come out of the Pelican?" I said as I removed the remains of his legs.

"No, I was unconscious. They must've thought you and me were dead." He made a cry of pain after each word.

"They would've heard my transmission after I sent it." I said, pulling him out of the rest of junk lying atop of him.

"I barely got yours, but I heard it probably because you were close. The others must be far away by now." He knelt on his right leg, trying to see if he hadn't gotten severe damage on it.

"I'll try again." I turned my comm back on. "Fireteam Eagle do any of you copy? This is Raptor 6 come in." I lowered my hand from my helmet, frustrated of how things had gone by. The Pelican destroyed, our team was split, and we had hostiles everywhere.

"I read you Raptor. We thought you were dead." It was Cameron.

"I'm here with Riley. Whose with you?" I raised my index finger back to my helmet and pressed the comm to try to get a better signal.

"Lace only, Autumn and Blaze are missing." Autumn and Blaze were Spartans I had known from far back, when the Spartan-III program was initiated.

"Any major injuries?" I asked.

"Not that I know of," he sounded suspicious.

"Update me when you find something. Raptor out." I turned to Riley "You still have your weapon?"

"Yeah, somewhere." He looked for it. I still needed to find mine, which was a MA5D assault rifle as well as a DMR. I looked inside the Pelican, making sure nothing important was left behind when I remembered the pilot. He had been shot, but he was wearing tough armor and he had a chance of still being alive; if he survived the crash that is. I checked his pulse and got something, but barely.

"Riley, this one's still breathing." I told Riley to come with a med pack. Riley knelt beside me, handing me the med pack.

"Whether he's brain dead or unconscious, but I highly doubt he's brain dead since he's breathing just fine." I began to heal where he was shot, taking off the armor on his breast first.

"Should we take him?" Riley picked up his assault rifle, which he had found behind the pilot's seat.

"He might be too much to take out there, and with the Prometheans around we won't do very well either." I looked out. "We'll have to set camp here until the others inform us about something, in the meantime we'll wait for him to heal."

I had nothing left to do, so I stared at the scenery, amazed how this place was artificial; yet so real. The trees were tall and thin, with slender branches coming out with bright green leaves. There was a river that flowed from an overhang south from the Pelican. The water crystal clear, almost diamond like. There was what appeared to be a sky, with dense clouds and a bright gold sun, setting over what I could see appeared to be a horizon.

"For a big ball of technology and info with an artificial landscape, this place is beautiful." I sat down in the cockpit's seat. Riley joined me on the seat beside me. "Almost reminds me of Reach," I paused. Reach was a nightmare to me now, it held nothing more than horrid memories. I was sent there to help evacuate citizens of New Alexandria, and the last thing I remember was seeing my previous squad massacred by Brutes and Elites. After I fled the planet, they informed me that it had been glassed by the Covenant. I decided to take my mind off it. I gained nothing thinking of my past, pitying why this all had to happen to me.

"You know, they've told me you were in the Spartan-II program. Were you really?" Riley turned to look at me as I snapped out of my past. I hesitated to answer.

"Yes, I was. It's something I won't or ever be proud of." I looked away from him.

"What was it like?" He kept his gaze on me.

"It's something worse than a nightmare come true. They kidnapped 74 of us in 2517, I was 5 at the time. They trained us in the art of war, and soon after they performed surgical procedures on us which biologically enhanced us into super soldiers. Then they made something for us called Mjolnir armor, making us unstoppable in the battlefield." I looked at my hands, as if trying to pretend it never happened and it was all just part of a fiction story. Riley began to talk.

"I was recruited for the Spartan-IV program, when they asked us who wanted to volunteer. I was the only one who did it, just to show I was more than what I was capable of doing. I used to be just a pilot back then. Everyone said I would just augment the chance of getting myself killed and that it wasn't worth it." He looked straight again, lowering his head. He became a Spartan because of bravery, and felt it was going to prove himself better to others. The other ones were right, he would get killed, sometime sooner or later.

"I'm picking up hostiles, 2 o'clock." I quickly began to stand up as Prometheans began to appear all around the Pelican. We both got out of the seats and took cover behind them. I pulled out my DMR that was left on the side of the Pelican along with my assault rifle when we had come in. My radar showed red dots all around me, Riley being the only yellow showing him as an ally.

"Can you see how many?" Riley began to walk out of the Pelican.

"Around 6 or 7." I began to walk out beside him.

"That'll do." Riley looked behind him, aimed at a Knight, and fired. The Promethean began to shoot at him with a suppressor, and Riley's body was covered in a blanket of golden flares surrounding every part of his body, each shot making it thicker which indicated that his energy shields were taking damage. He rolled over to his left, and shot the Knight until it's shields were depleted. The Knight opened its mask splitting it in two, revealing its bright orange skull and yelled at Riley. He ran up to it and hit it right in the head, and the Promethean's head began to slowly turn into orange ashes, and from there it spread to the rest of its body, leaving nothing more than a bright blue flame floating over the ash.

I turned around to face a Knight. With my DMR I began to shoot as quickly as I could toward it's head, each shot hitting his energy shields made of what seemed of hard-light that covered his entire body that was barely visible. I could see each time I shot it cracked and small, very pale blue colored pieces of it flew out into the air. After seeing that all of his energy shields had cracked and was shattered open, I took out my assault rifle and began to spray him until he turned into bright orange ashes in the same way like the other one Riley had shot down. I ran and ducked behind the rear of the Pelican and reloaded, then got back up again. I turned and saw the Knight had dropped his hard-light shield armor ability, so I equipped it grabbing it as fast as I could trying to avoid the incoming fire from the Crawlers. I was glad the Knight hadn't used it, or I would've been forced to stay behind cover and not try to not get hit by the other Prometheans' fire and if I had gotten out to finish the Knight I would've probably get snuck up from behind by a Crawler or himself. That was one thing me and Riley had to keep in mind, never lose sight of the enemy. I looked at Riley, and he was firing to his right, shooting 2 Crawlers in the head making them explode upon impact of the bullets, leaving nothing else except metallic limbs and an orange liquid spilled near them. I saw three laser beams pointed at Riley's head, knowing what would soon follow I ran up to his left side and activated the hard-light shield. As I had expected, the lasers soon ricocheted of my shield. But it that wasn't a laser; they were ionized particles fired from a Z-750 Special Application Sniper Rifle.

"Damn! I haven't seen those before!" Riley stumbled behind the shield. He was informed about the Forerunner AI's Prometheans, but wasn't told or detailed about the Forerunner weapons the UNSC had first encountered in 2557.

"It's a binary rifle, a Forerunner version of the sniper. You don't want to be on the end of those lasers or barrel, otherwise you'll disintegrate and be nothing more than a pile of ashes." My hard-light shield ran out and turned off, leaving my front vulnerable again to enemy fire. I looked at where the shot came from, and saw the Crawler Snipe trying to find a safe place to fire the binary rifle again. Before it had the chance I aimed my DMR at it's head and killed it. We finished the rest of the Crawlers, mainly shooting them in their head destroying them instantly. We went back to the Pelican, and the pilot didn't seem to be moving or breathing. We decided that he was dead and began to take everything we could from the Pelican. Ammo, weapons and anything useful we found. We began to move out north of the crash site, as the artificial sun began to fully set in the horizon, leaving nothing but darkness.


End file.
